Another post to continue documenting my ongoing passionate affection for purples and Revlon Colorstay Nail Enamel, today’s nails of the day is Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry! This shade could easily be included in my theme posts of Pantone’s Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid as well!

Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry is a bright, intense, sparkle free purple leaning fuchsia. The formula is like a cross between a jelly and a cream and applies smoothly and beautifully. If you had steady hands you could get away with 1 coat, but I need 2 to make it even. The brush is the wider, flatter type which i find suits my nails well. The swatches shown on nail are in shade, then sun and are the just Rich Raspberry alone, no base or top coat. Sorry about the rough cuticles, I’m healing up from a hangnail issue and have been doing some rough work around the house this weekend.

Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry

Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry

This shade is reputed to be a dupe for OPI Dim Sum Plum. I don’t own that one so I can’t compare side by side, however I did study several pictures, and it appears to my eye that Dim Sum Plum is just the slightest bit dustier, which brings me to the picture below…

Revlon Colorstay Rich Raspberry, NYC MOMA

NYC Color in a Minute in MOMA is also, to my eye, just the slightest bit dustier. Technically this would make the NYC MOMA a better dupe for OPI Dim Sum Plum than the Revlon Rich Raspberry, but I still felt it was worth sharing. Another purple Revlon Colorstay/NYC nailpolish dupe I recently reviewed can be found here!

Other notable polishes this reminds me of include Our Fuchsia’s Looking Bright from Nicole for OPI (which is a bit pinker), OPI Florentine Fuchsia (which is a bit redder), OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries (unbelievably adorable name!) and OPI Kinky in Helsinki (same intensity, but with added beautiful shimmer).

And apparently because I can’t help myself, I ended up slapping a coat of Essie As Gold As It Gets on top!

Continuing on with my series of purple eye shadow swatch and reviews in honor of Pantone’s Color of the Year Radiant Orchid, today’s subject is Rimmel Glam’Eyes Quad Eye Shadow in 017 Dark Signature. The label on the back says it “Complements Green Eyes”, which I’m sure may be true but I just went ahead and ignored that advice.

Rimmel Dark Signature

Rimmel Dark Signature

The shades are quite pretty, and are listed 1 through 4 for application as shown on the back.

1) a pale greyish lavender. They want you to apply this in the middle of the lid. My favourite of the quad. Mostly matte.
2) the closest to the “Radiant Orchid” shade itself, a brightened medium purple shade, undertones leaning red. They want you to apply this on the inner and outer corner. Slight amount of microglitter.
3) a frosted white shimmery shade. They want you to apply this on your brow bone.
4) a deep dark brown based purple. They want you to apply this to your outer V/corner. Slight amount of microglitter.

Rimmel Dark Signature Swatch Outdoor Light

Rimmel Dark Signature Swatch Indoor Light

I did apply as instructed on the back as I was curious as to how it would look. Pigmentation is slightly better than average for drugstore makeup, there was some fallout but it blended and brushed away easily.

I applied this near a window for better outdoor lighting. It looked very purple when going on, and I loved it. I did notice however when walking around the house and checking in regular indoor lighting that it quickly seemed to fade to shades of greys and browns. The texture still looked nice, the dimension was still there, but it certainly wasn’t purple under an incandescent bulb. When I checked over back in outdoor light, the purple was still visible but not quite as intense as it was upon application. What bothered me most about this was no longer being able to see shade 2, the brightened medium purple, on the inner and outer corner as they had advised for application, as it did look pretty interesting. Some swatches on eye in various lighting below. Also wearing Smashbox Photo Op Eye Brightening Mascara, Milani Liquif’Eye black liner on waterline and the black shade from Physician’s Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Gel Cream Liner for Hazel Eyes. I’ll probably go ahead and review that set on it’s own, it’s wonderful! (Edit: probably discontinued…sad).

Rimmel Dark SIgnature

Rimmel Dark Signature

Rimmel Dark Signature

Overall, good texture, pigment ok as long as you don’t mind it looking dulled in indoor light, or if you plan on being outside in the sun while wearing it. It blended well and didn’t seem to crease very quickly. If you don’t mind your colours looking different in different lighting, then this is a decent purchase. I find Rimmel to be very reasonably priced especially on sale. The medium and darker purple remind me a lot of 2 shades in a purple Annabelle trio that I plan on trying soon as well. I have higher hopes for the pigments in that one.

If I were to use this one again for a purple look, I’d eliminate the frosty white highlight shade on inner tear duct and brow bone and use a matte cream shade, something more like the one in the purple Almay palette reviewed earlier. Would probably also try an additional base over my foundation, I have a purple cream eyeliner from the same set as the Physician’s Formula cream liner mentioned above that might do the trick, smudged lightly over the lid to enhance the purple shades.

Rimmel is available at mass retailers (in Canada) and averages from $4-10 for items across the entire brand. This Rimmel Glam’Eyes Quad Eye Shadow is 0.148oz/4.2g and I probably paid around $5 for it. I’m definitely interested in trying a few more of these quads, probably some of the more neutral/lighter ones now that I know how the pigment behaves in different lighting. Perhaps Romantic Cool, Smokey Purple, English Breakfast!

I was walking by Sephora the other day and they had a huge display about Pantone’s Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid. And when I say I was walking by Sephora I mean I went on in and grabbed a couple of perfume samples. Not sure who gets to make these decisions or how they manage to do so, but happy to see that the color of the year is a shade of PURPLE! I love purple. This gives me a lovely reason to use up more of my purple eye shadows, and I’ve got a half dozen quads or trios that I can think of off the top of my head. I decided to do a series on them with quick swatches, an eye look and review. I’ll try to make them each a bit different.

Almay intense i-color bold nude

Today’s edition will be with a product I find to be oddly named: Almay intense i-color bold nudes kit in bold nudes for browns, numbered as 411. Unsure how purple is a nude, also unsure why only brown eyes gets to wear purple eye shadows so it’s a good thing I ignore that advice.

This Almay “bold nudes” trio of purple eye shadows which are in no way nude are decently pigmented and seem to wear fairly well on my oily eyelids. I’ve been wearing their shadows for years with respectable results. They are packaged in a white, reasonably sturdy compact with the shades arranged from top to bottom as they would expect you to apply it on your eye. It also has instructions as to the same on the back of the package. I found the line of eyelashes on the outside of the compact matching up with the base lid shade to be a cute detail.

Almay intense i-color bold nudes

It includes:

Base shade, (bottom) a medium lavender shade with grey undertones, also the color fades on the grey side when it does fade. I prefer my lavenders to lean grey instead of pink, I find it to be more flattering to my cool toned skin. The instructions on the back want you to apply this shade all over the lid. I find this to be the best pigmented of the three.

Crease shade, (middle) a deep purple with brown undertones and tiny microscopic blue and red glitter that you can only see in very bright sun. The instructions on the back tell you to blend this shade into the crease. Needs building for full pigment.

Highlight shade, (top) is a slightly shimmery cream shade, just the tiniest bit chalky. It does lean a bit frosty, but its a warm rather than cool toned frosty. The instructions on the back tell you to sweep it on to your brow bone to highlight.

Almay intense i-color bold nudes swatch

I promptly ignored each of these instructions although what they have described would also look nice. I like to do a smoky eye with trios such as this, starting with the deepest shade on my lid, the medium one to blend it out into the crease, and the lightest in the corner of my eye and a small bit on the brow bone. Also included in this look are Maybelline’s gel eye liners in Eggplant along the top lid and Black along the inner rim and NYC’s City Curls mascara. The first 3 pictures are in late aftermoon outdoor light, and the last in indoor light for reference.

Almay intense i-color bold nudes, purple, on eye swatch

Almay intense i-color bold nudes, purple, on eye swatch

Almay intense i-color bold nudes, purple, on eye swatch

Almay intense i-color bold nudes, purple, on eye swatch indoor light

These Almay eye shadow compacts come in a wide variety of shades, contain 0.12Oz/3.4g of product and retail for around $10-12 CA in my area. I only buy them on sale and find them to be a pretty good value for performance, quality and quantity.